Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.3

neceffary to the attaining of it; í7t it is his duty, will a man find himfelf de- S E x M. termined to ufe his utmoft power for reliev- VII. ing one whom he feeth in great extremity %v...1 and ready to perifh, even with danger, trou- ble, and difadvantage to himfelf? Nay, there are plain enough difcoveries of fuch affec- tions, or inftinéts refembling them, in the inferior kinds of animals, who are not ca- pable of any moral reflection or abftrat thinking at all. But there are other objects of affection which are brought into the mind after a different manner, that is, by reflection, in- quiry, comparing things, and forming ge- neral notions of them. There are excellent objects which, when well underftood, we cannot but highly efteem, but they do not occur to our fenfes ; we are led to the know- ledge of them by experience, obfervation, and reafoning. Of this fort is what Solomon calleth wifdom or virtue, which is not an object of fenfe, but a quality of the mind intirely abftracted from all material beings, and taking none of their properties Into the idea of it, as real, however, as any of them, and as truly an object of love and efteem to the mind which difcerneth it. When the affections of piety, reverence for fupreme moral

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